Oldies Matchup Fizzles as Youth, Angels Prevail

Well, this experience-of-two-lifetimes came and went, a matchup that was 94 years in the making. Saturday night at Anaheim Stadium, for the first time in nearly a century, a pair of 300-game winners met head-to-head when the Angels’ Don Sutton faced the Cleveland Indians’ Phil Niekro.

It wasn’t worth the wait.

By the end of the seventh inning, both 304-game winner Niekro and 301-game winner Sutton were gone. Neither would be adding to his historic total, as the Angels and the Indians were still locked in a 3-3 tie as the bullpens took over.

And in the eighth inning, a crowd of 43,385 saw the Angels beat up on a couple of pitchers with 45 wins between them, scoring six times against John Butcher and Tom Candiotti en route to a 9-3 Angel victory.

Rookie Wally Joyner, who was barely out of diapers when Niekro and Sutton began their big league careers, was credited with the game-winning hit. Joyner’s RBI single in the bottom of the eighth started a six-run outburst that included a bases-loaded walk to Rob Wilfong and a three-run double by Jerry Narron.

Doug Corbett, who pitched two scoreless innings, was the winner, improving his record to 2-1. Butcher (0-5) was the loser.

And Sutton and Niekro--who own a combined 605 victories, 10,000 strikeouts and 103 shutouts--were left with a pair of no-decisions.

Three-hundred-game winners are rare enough. Sutton became only the 19th two weeks ago. Matchups between 300-game winners are rarer still. You have to go back to the 1892 game that pitted Tim Keefe against Pud Galvin to find the last such meeting.

Sutton calls himself “a numbers guy,” but these numbers--which set the stage for what eventually produced a flop--left him unimpressed.

“Who cares?” Sutton said. “It makes for a nice media hype, but I really don’t care.

“I’m not a coldly indifferent person, but my job is not based on who I’m pitching against. I wish we both could have detached ourselves and watched it from a distance.

“Phil and I have done this a lot of times; we’ve been here before. Over the years, that has given us a mutual respect and built a friendship. Heck, it would have been a lot easier if I didn’t know who I was pitching against.”

Niekro, who at 48 has witnessed more of history than Sutton, a mere pup of 41, savored the experience a little more. When Cleveland Manager Pat Corrales made his way to the mound to replace his starting pitcher in the seventh inning, Niekro looked into the Angel dugout and pointed at Sutton, a gesture to mark the moment.

“It’s always special to play against Don Sutton,” Niekro said. “We’ve pitched against each other so many times in the National League. Usually, the games are one- or two-run ballgames.”

Together, Sutton and Niekro have reminded us that baseball still holds a place for gray sideburns and crow’s feet. But on this night, at least, the important work was left for younger men.

Two of the youngest on the field, Joyner and Indian rookie Cory Snyder, made sizable contributions. Snyder accounted for all of his his team’s runs, delivering a two-run home run off Sutton in the second inning and adding a solo home run in the seventh.

That paved the way for Sutton’s exit one inning later.

Joyner, meanwhile, had a single, a stolen base and a run-scoring triple in four at-bats against Niekro. And his triple, bouncing out of the glove of a diving Brett Butler in left-center field, was a most memorable one.

Joyner’s hit scored Gary Pettis with the Angels’ first run against Niekro after 27 straight innings of nothing. Last season with the New York Yankees, Niekro went 3-0 against the Angels without allowing a run in 22 innings.

He went 4 innings Saturday before Joyner finally got to him. And, once rediscovering how it was done, the Angels quickly added two more runs.

Joyner scored when second baseman Fran Mullins bobbled a ground ball off the bat of Doug DeCinces. And one inning later, Bob Boone tripled into the left-field corner and scored on a single to right by Pettis.

More nostalgia: Boone’s triple was his first since 1984.

That enabled the Angels to forge a 3-3 tie. In the eighth inning, they forged ahead.

Ruppert Jones led off with a walk before another error cost Cleveland. Butcher did himself in, dropping Pettis’ bunt and giving the Angels runners on first and second with no outs.

Corrales then summoned Candiotti in to replaced Butcher and Candiotti immediately yielded Joyner’s game-winner.

One out later, DeCinces singled home Pettis and Brian Downing and Wilfong walked to load the bases. One more out and Narron doubled to right-center, clearing the bases for three runs.

The outcome had been decided, although the old men of the hour, Sutton and Niekro, were left on the sidelines. For Sutton, that was easier to deal with than for Niekro.

“Gratefully, I didn’t bury us,” Sutton said. “Selfishly, I wanted to win, but after letting them get out in front like they did, I’m thankful that I just didn’t cost us.”

Sutton stared into a few more camera lights and answered a few more questions. Finally, he excused himself to soak his right arm, part of Saturday’s antique show, in a bucket filled with ice.

“It’s either that,” Sutton said, “or formaldehyde.”

Angel Notes After both turned in satisfactory pitching sessions in the bullpen before Saturday’s game, the status of John Candelaria and Donnie Moore is this: Moore figures to return to the active roster Monday, with Candelaria possibly due back a day later, depending on further examination today by team physician Dr. Lewis Yocum. Pitching coach Marcel Lachemann on Moore: “He’s pitched on back-to-back days twice this week and for the second time, he threw better the second day than the first.” . . . Gary Lucas continues on the pitch-now, pain-later treadmill, encountering discomfort again in his back after working two innings Thursday in Palm Springs. Friday, Lucas couldn’t throw in the outfield without pain and Saturday brought only a little improvement. He’ll try to throw in the bullpen today and then talk to Lachemann about another outing in Palm Springs this week. Lucas’ new target date for his debut with the Angels: “After the All-Star break, before August.”

Life In The Minors: Upon his return from Palm Springs Thursday, Candelaria was asked by Doug DeCinces what he thought of pitching in Class A again. “It was OK until I got thirsty and had to put 50 cents in the Coke machine,” Candelaria said with a laugh. After working a perfect first inning, Candelaria returned to the dugout where one of his young teammates-for-a-day told him, “Great inning, Candy. Sorry you gotta leave now. They’re sending you up to Midland.”

Doug Corbett’s 2 1/2-year-old son, Kyle, is home after being hospitalized last week for spinal meningitis. “The doctors told us to keep his body fluids up and give him lots of sleep and prayers,” Corbett said. “The prognosis is that he can have a healthy, normal life. We caught it early, which was the big thing. It can be devastating if it’s not detected early enough. Fortunately, my wife was on top of the thing. Kyle had many symptoms of the flu, but Jill knew he wasn’t acting like a 2 1/2-year-old with the flu. Two-and-a-half year-olds are not lethargic.”

In the Old-Timers’ game that preceded the old-timer’s duel between Don Sutton and Phil Niekro, a group of former Angels played a team of former major league all-stars to a 2-2 tie. Ken McMullen hit a two-run home run for the Angels off Bob Gibson, striking the screen on the left-field foul pole. Geoff Zahn, an old-timer for less than six months, allowed the all-stars to tie it by giving up consecutive doubles to Randy Hundley, Tom Tresh and Ernie Banks in the third inning. The game was called after 4 1/2 innings.